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A SERMO:^ 



PREACHED DEC. 17th, 18G5, THE SUNDAY PRECEDING 



THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE 



LANDING or THE PILGRIMS, 



TiE^^. CHA-RLES CARROLL EVERET'P, 



PASTOR OI' THE INDEPENDENT CONGREGATIONAL CHl'RCH, OF 



BANGOR. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 



BANGOR: 
Printed by B. A.. Buri", 

18(35. 




A SEEMON" 



PREACHED DEC. 17th, 1865, THE SUNDAY PRECEDING 



THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE 



LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS, 



BY 



REV. CIIA.RLES CA.RR01L.L EVERETT. 



PASTOR OF THE iJMDEPENDENT CONGREGATIONAL CttURCH, OF 



BANGOR, 




PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 



BANGOR : 

Printed by B. A. Biarr. 

1865. 



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The breaking waves dashed high 
On a stern and rock-bound coast, 

And the woods, against a stormy sky 
Their sriant branches toss'd ; 



o' 



And the heavy night hung dark 

The hills and waters o'er, 
When a band of exiles moor'd their bark 

On the wild New England shore. 

Not as the conquerer comes. 

They, the true-hearted, came. 
Not with the roll of the stirring drums. 

And the trumpet that sings of lame ; 

Not as the flying come, 

In silence and in fear, — 
They shook the depths of the desert's gloom 

With theu' hymns of lofty cheer. 

Amidst the storm they sang, 

And the stars heard and the sea ! 
And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang 

To the anthem of the free! 

The ocean-eagle soared 

From his nest by the white wave's foam, 
And the rocking pines of the forest roar'd — 

This was their welcome home ! 

What sought they thus afar ? 

Bright jewels of the mine? 
The wealth of seas, the spoils of war ? — 

They sought a faith's pure shrine ! 

Aye, call it holy ground. 

The soil where first they trod ! 

They have left unstain'd what there they found- 
Freedom to worship God ! 



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SEKMON". 



* * * Thy pouxd hath gained tex pounds. — Luke 19, 16. 

This week, will occur the grandest and the most sacred 
anniversarj'" which marks the national year. We have oth- 
er days, which are celebra ed with more pomp. Our 
" Fourth of July" is ushered in by the peal of cannons, 
and lighted out by the blaze of fire-works. In these last 
years, we have studded the calender of the nation, all over, 
with sacred and famous days, days of victory, days on which 
Liberty arose in new grandeur and a larger universality of 
power, days which stir fresher and more tender memories 
in our souls. But on the twenty- second of December, if 
we did but realize it, we celebrate all these together. That 
contains, in germ, our fourth of July, our twenty-second of 
February ,our first of January, sacred to Liberty, and our nmth 
of April, on which the nation stood one and triumphant. 
The little vessel, that bore, from Plymouth in old England 
to Plymouth in New England, the germ of a new nation, 
brought with it whatever the nation was to be, that is great 
and glorious. Our Washingtons, our Adamses, our Lin- 
colns, our Grants, came over then. The stout hearts, the 
firm wills, the honest heads of those old Pilgrims contain- 
ed just the principles, just the virtues, which, so far as our 
nation has been governed by principle, and ennobled by 
virtue, have controlled it and glorified it ever since. 

You look back to that cold December, you see a 
little vessel floating in the bay, you see a little band 
of men and women setting their feet upon the shore, 
a shore that was doubly such, the ocean on one side and 
the barbarous A^ilderness on the other. Is this all you see ? — 
Na}^ look closer, and you will see chiu'ches and colleges 
and cities ; you will seej a commerce that whitens both 



4 
oceans, a Avealth that controls both hemispheres, a luxury 
that draws from both. All of these are in the brave and 
true hearts of these pilgrims, that seemed at first so poor 
and desolate. Churches — they brought them in their pious 
souls. Colleges — they brought them in their Ciiger brains. 
Wealth — they brought it in their indomitable wills, and in 
their hard and ready hands. 

O nation, burdened with thy wealth, proud of thy vast- 
ness, flushed with the triumphs that adorn every page of 
thy history, come hither and see thy birthplace and thy ear- 
ly home ! — But how shall the nation come ? Shall it come 
proud of its present, and half ashamed of its past ? Shall 
it see only the roughness and the rudeness, the penury, the 
hunger and the cold ? Shall it come like some rich youth, 
that is half ashamed to be reminded of the humble cottage 
where he was born, of its bare walls and lowly roof ? — Nay, 
perhaps that youth will remember something in that poor 
cottage, that is worth all his wealth and his honor. At 
least the nation can find such treasure. As it stands, on 
this anniversary, beholding the low estate, the privations, 
the sufferings of its first home, and its first life, it grows 
half ashamed of its wealth, of its luxury, of its greatness. 
It finds something there that is worth them all, a thousand 
fold. It finds principle, consecration, religious faith. It 
finds men who had enjoyed happy homes and comfortable 
firesides, and whatever of wealth was needed to make life 
outwardly prosperous, but who gave them all up for prin- 
ciple : who weighed ail of this comfort and ease, on which 
we pride ourselves, and chose rather to be in the wilder- 
ness with God and a clear conscience, than in all the old- 
world-comfort without them. As the nation looks, its 
wealth loses something of its dazzling glitter ; its material 
greatness loses something of its imposing majesty; its 
heart loses a little of its pride at its physical strength and 
all its outward show of magnificence. It sees, that princi- 
ple and consecration and faith in God outweigh them all, 
as though they were the dust of the balance. 

Shall the nation then stand humbled and self reproach- 



5 

ed, ashamed that it is so great, and so rich, and so magnifi- 
cent ? — No, thank God, there is no need of that. If it 
should come -svithout pride which despises the past, it can 
come also without shame, that abases itself before it. — It 
also has done its work. It has borne its burden and fought 
its battle. It also has weighed money against principle 
and found it wanting; it also has devoted itself with a lof- 
ty consecration. It can then look the past calmly in the 
face, without vainglory and without humiliation. It owes 
to the past all things, and yet it has been true to the past, 
and carried on its work, and helped to fulfil its ideal. — 
Happy the man, who can return from his struggles with for- 
tune, from the entanglements of business, whether loaded 
or not with its spoils, whether successful or not with what 
the world calls success, to the humble home of his boyhood, 
that is rich with sacred memories, that has been consecra- 
ted by religion, by integrity, by kindly generosity, and can 
say, — "The lesson I learnt here I have never forgotten,the 
virtue of my parents has not been tarnished in me. I owe 
them all, but, thank God, I have not dishonored them". — 
Happy the nation that can turn to such a beginning as that 
at Plymouth Rock, ■\\ith a heart full of reverence : yet full 
too of a holy joy, that it has fought its good fight, and ful- 
filled its work, and carried on without disgrace, and with 
new honor, that which began in such pure devotion and in 
such earnest faith. 

I know the faults and the vices of the present. I know 
too that the past had its faults. Those stern old Puritans 
were not perfect. Their faults were theirs, and ours are 
oa. rs; but our virtues are theirs, and are derived from them ; 
and to day, I would see only this shining line that binds 
us together. 

This brings us to ask, What is the true way in which we 
should be able to approach the past, and compare ourselves 
with it. — There are different ways in which men love to 
look back upon the Puritans. Some regard them with 
mockery. They were stern, and merciless. Their religion 
was harsh and austere. They had no lightness ; all was 



6 

rigid and arbitrary. Bat Avhat — v,'c may ask such mockers — 
■\vliat went ye out into the Avildcrness for to see ? Eeeds 
shaken with the Avind ? — But what went ye out for to see ? 
Men clothed in soft raiment, men soft and mild in thought 
and speech or act ? Those that wear soft raiment are in 
King's palaces. Had they been of sTich stuff, they would 
have staid, contented, as they were. — But what went ye out 
for to see ? Prophets ? Yea, I say unto you, and more than 
prophets. They Avere the forerunners and the beginners 
of the new epoch, and of all that have been born of woman 
there are none greater than they. — Others would approach 
the Puritans with unmixed reverence. '1 hey would seek 
to prove that they think and believe just as the fathers did. 
If they can go to Plymouth rock, and find that, word for 
word, their creed just fits the Puritans' belief,they feel them- 
selves worthy to be reckoned as their children. — What is 
this but to say to them,— "We knew that you were harsh and 
stern; so we took your pound, and folded it in a n .pkin 
and laid it carefully away, here thou hast that is thine." 
Rather let us be of the number that shall say to them, 
"Thy pound hath gained ten pounds. Take thine own with 
usury." — The true descendants of the Puritans are not 
those who think what they thought, but those who think as 
they thought ; not those who say what they said, but those 
who speak as they spoke. The Puritans were the fore- 
most men of their generation. They were in advance of 
theii' age. They dared to think for themselves, and they 
dared to say what they thought. The Puritan of to-day is 
not he who stands where they stood, though it be on Ply- 
mouth Kock ; and repeats their words, however sacred. 
But it is he who follows truth wherever she may lead, who 
welcomes her latest revelation, who is in earnest with the 
truth, who despises constraint and authority, and acknowl- 
edges no priest and no church, which can come between 
his soul and God. — The testimony then that I will bear to- 
day to the Puritans is, that their ideas have moulded this 
nation, their virtues have purified it, their devotion has en- 
nobled it. But their ideas and their principles have not 



T 
been mere dead weight, transmitted from hand to hand; 
they have germinated and expanded. I'he ideas of 
the present are not the same as theirs, but they are parts 
of the same process. — Their pound has gained other ten 
pounds. — In a word, I would claim for the Puritans, that 
they are the source of our most advanced, most progres- 
sive, and most Uberal thought ; and I would chiim for our 
most advanced, progressive and Hberal thought, that it is 
the true representative and the true descendant of Puritan- 
ism in this generation. 

Let us iUustrate this by reference to the actual position 
of the early pilgrims. I Avill first speak of tlieir church or- 
ganization. And here I will quote directly from Palfrey's 
History of New England. 

"A church Avas a company of believers, associated to- 
gether by a mutual covenant to maintain and share Chris- 
tian worship and ordinances, and to watch over each oth-. 
er's spiritual condition. The covenants — remarkably free 
in the earliest times from statements of doctrine — were 
what their name imports. They were mutual engage- 
ments in the presence of God, to walk together in all his 
ways, according as he was pleased to reveal himself in his 
blessed word of truth * * * A church officer, of what- 
ever degree, was an officer only in his own congregation. 
The primitive doctrine of New England was, that no man 
was a clergyman in any sense, either before his election by 
a particular church, or after his relinquishment of the spec- 
ial trust so conferred ; and that, even while in office, he 
was a layman to all the world except to his own congrega- 
tion, and had no right to exercise any clerical function else- 
where. In the earliest times a minister was ordained, not 
by other ministers, but by officers of the church which elect- 
ed him, or Avhen it had no officers, then by some of its pri- 
vate members. This absolute mutual independence of the 
churches was in principle equivalent to universal mutual 
toleration ; and if the original scheme of an ecclesiastical 
constitution had been carried out, there could have been 
no interference on behalf of the whole community, as rep- 
resented by its government, with the belief or practises of 
any single congregation."* 

It does not need much knowledge of history, to know 
* Palfrey's History of New England, Vol. 2, pages 36 and 39." 



how soon these prhiciples were modified. They were so, 
because church membership was a pre-requisite for voting 
and hokling office. Thus the central authorities felt call- 
ed upon to control this matter of church membership. But 
of the Congregationalism of the Puritans, as represented by 
the Pilgrim Fathers, during the first years of their resi- 
dence in America, our liberal churches are the true and on- 
ly representatives. These churches which it has become 
the fashion not to include in the word Congregationalist, 
are the only churches, which are Congregational, in the 
sense in which the early Pilgrims were Congregational. I 
noticed in the papers a suggestion from a gathering of 
Congregationalists, that the ministers of Congregational 
societies preach to-day on Congregationalism, in reference 
to the approaching Forefathers day. As a Congregational 
minister, I accept the suggestion ; and I repeat, that our 
liberal and independent Congregational societies are the 
only ones, which represent at the present day, the Congre- 
gationalism, which was first planted on Plymouth Rock. 

In regard to matters of doctrine, I confess, and I do it 
with joy, that the belief of the Pilgrim ' Fathers is not ours. 
Their thought of God" is not purs. Their Sabbath is not 
ours, their notion of retribution is not ours. It is owing 
to our truth to their traditions, to their spirit and their his- 
tory, that our belief thus differs. Those who have given 
up the independence of tha Puritan Congregationalism have 
remained more fixed, and repeat more nearly the expres- 
sion of the Puritan belief. We, who have accepted the 
original independence, which marked their Congregations, 
and their impatience of interference from without, have, 
by this very fact, and by the impulse which we received 
from them, been driven farther along the course, oil which 
they Avere moving. 

If we turn from the church to the state, we find that 
though the political organization of the early Puritans was 
not a perfect Democracy, it was, perhaps, the nearest ap- 
proach to a Democracy, that the world had seen. In the 
Puritan state, the original voters determined what new com- 



9 

ers should be voters. They elected them, as if into a close 
society. But still the power was in the hands of the peo- 
ple. The world has never seen, and perhaps will never 
see, a perfect Democracy. Our own State has affixed arbi- 
trary limits to popular suffrage. Young meu of the age of 
twenty cannot vote. Foreigners must remain here a certain 
length of time before they can vote. Women cannot vote. 
All of these lines are more or less arbitrary. Why should 
the line be drawn just here ? All lines of this nature must 
be arbitrary. Yet there must always be some such lines. 
The child, for instance, will never be allowed to vote, and 
the point where the cliild becomes a man, must be always 
artificial and arbitrary. We have followed strictly the Pu- 
ritans. The voters have, all along, marked the limitation 
of the right of suffrage. As our liberal churches have fol- 
lowed their traditions of freedom and independence, and 
have thus advanced to a broader faith, and a clearer insight 
into religious truth ; so our state, following then- funda- 
mental principle of popular government, has reached a 
broader Democracy and a freer life. We received our cap- 
ital from them. We owe them a debt of thanks, which 
can never be repaid. Yet, we have used that capital, not 
wholly in vain, and can meet them on this anniversary, 
with frank and grateful hearts, saying, — Thy pound hath 
gained ten pounds. — This is not self glorification. It was 
the nature of their principles to expand. Their claim to 
worship God, according to the dictates of their own con- 
science, could not help expanding into that right of all men 
thus to worship him, upon which their claim must rest. 
Their independence could not help leading to broader 
knowledge. Their Democracy could not help leading to 
a broader Democracy. AH this could not help being, un- 
less we were false to them and to ourselves. 

I have spoken of their principles, as being the control- 
ing power of the nation. They settled New England on- 
ly, yet their settlement was the planting of an idea. They 
were idealists, and nothing has the expansive force, the rul- 
ing power, of an idea. Other settlements were for gain, 
this for principle. Other colonies were planted in the 



10 

name of Mammon, this was planted in the name of God. 
Thus the other settlements had no more root-hold in the 
soil than the Indian tribes. They must yield before the 
expanding principles of this idea, as the Indians fled before 
an advancing civihzation. The great West is mainly an out- 
growth of New England. And now the South is becom- 
ing New Englandised. The very year, that the Mayflow^- 
er reached Plymouth, with its freight of Liberty, came, like 
its dark shadow, the first slave ship to Jamestown. From 
these two germs sprang two powers, one of light and one 
of darkness, one of order and one of chaos. The continent 
was not large enough for both. At last they met, they 
touched ; and for them to meet and to touch, was a life 
and death struggle. — Now at last we can hail Fore Fath- 
ers day, with the welcome gi-eeting of final triumph. The 
Puritan has conquered the Cavalier. The South itself is 
overrun by Northern emigrants and Northern ideas, as it 
has been overrun by Northern armies. Ideas of the digni- 
ty of labor and of the rights of man are taking the place of 
the Feudal notions of the right of oppression and of the dig- 
nity of idleness. Plymouth Rock is becoming the center, 
Forefathers day the anniversary, of the whole nation. The 
Puritan is supreme. And it is the Puritan principles that 
are to be the cement and the guarantee of our new Union. 
All lovers of the woods know, that the Mayflower buds 
in the autumn. All through the dreary winter, the May- 
flower bud lies beneath the snow, like the bud of summer 
itself ; and when it opens, summer itself begins. The May- 
flower of the Puritans, in the winter wildness. in the cheer. 
lessness of nature and the darkness of history, was the un- 
opened bud of our whole glad Summer of Liberty, of Civ- 
ilization and of light. Well may we commemorate its ad- 
vent, and hold sacred its memorv. So long as we cherish 
the simple virtues of the Puritan, his honesty with God 
and with man, his earnestness in church and in state, his 
fearlessness for the right, and his intolerance of the wrong, 
though we may exercise this intolerance in a wiser way, 
so long may we call ourselves his children, and bring every 
year fresh usury for the talent, Avhich he entrusted to us. 



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